Cameco marks 25th year in 2013

Meanwhile, Gitzel said he was proud of the company's record of giving back in 2013. He pointed to a $1 million donation to Saskatoon's Ronald McDonald House as one example that was particularly important. The charity provides people who have to come in from out-of-town to get medical treatment for their children with a place to stay. He said about two-thirds of the people who use the house come from northern Saskatchewan.

“Many of them would be directly or indirectly related to our operations, so that made a lot of sense for us,” he said.

Gitzel added that while the company does cut cheques where it can, Cameco's employees are also encouraged to get out and volunteer in the community. The company's employees themselves also contributed over $1 million to the United Way and related charities.

While Gitzel said business has been good, he acknowledged that the world uranium market still has a long way to go to fully recover from the 2008 recession and the downturn caused by the Fukushima disaster in Japan, which led to that country shutting down all 48 of its nuclear power plants while they assessed if they were safe to operate.

“Japan is undertaking a serious review of their nuclear program. They are committed to restarting their reactors but its taken a lot longer than we thought,” he said.

Gitzel said bright spots on the international stage included the signing of a new deal to sell uranium to India negotiated with the help of the Canadian government. That agreement ended an almost 40 year refusal by Canada to sell nuclear materials and technology to the fast-growing subcontinent after India used Canadian-made reactors to make nuclear weapons in the 1970's.

Perhaps the biggest national headline involving Cameco was news the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is pursuing a case against the company. The CRA alleges a 17-year deal inked between Cameco and its Switzerland-based subsidiary in 1999 allowed the company to dodge in excess of $800 million in tax. The CRA charges that Cameco sold the bulk of the uranium it mined in Canada to the European arm of the company at a below-market price to lower the amount of taxable profit it booked in Canada. The agency alleges that the company then sold the same uranium on the world market for a much higher price, booking the profits in Switzerland to take advantage of a lower tax rate.

For his part, Gitzel said that he couldn't go into too many specifics while the case was before the courts. He did say that the company “operated with its cards face-up on the table” when it came to the Swiss deal and he was confident the company would be vindicated once the case wraps up.

“Part of our business is to minimize the tax we pay. Now, that's following all the laws of the country and we've done that and we'll continue to do that for the next 25 years,” he said.

Overall, Gitzel said he was looking forward to 2014 no matter what the market throws the company's way.

“I just tell our people, you know, we can't control the market. What we can control is how the company operates, our safety record, our production record, our costs. And that;s what we'll do. We'll work as hard as we can for our shareholders and our communities to be as safe and efficient as we can as a company.”

blevy@rawlco.com

Follow on Twitter: @BrynLevy

by Bryn Levy

Cameco marks 25th year in 2013

paNOW Staff

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